Those who were outside Toronto Polices Services (TPS) 51 Division on Sept. 11 describe a scene of complete chaos and mayhem after police started pushing the crowd onto the road, then pepper spraying, punching and tackling them. Several demonstrators had to go to the hospital after.
Police report two people were charged for incidents there and one person was charged at an earlier related protest a few blocks away at Meridian Hall, all for allegedly assaulting officers. Demonstrators note that four others were arrested but not charged with anything. Police say two officers had minor injuries.
The original protest: UJA’s fundraiser at Meridian Hall
The original protest was in opposition to a fundraising event for the United Jewish Appeal – Federation of Greater Toronto (UJA), which provides funds to a number of activities, including the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), which is its “advocacy agent.”
The fundraiser featured staunchly pro-Israel speakers and performers. These included an active soldier in the Israeli Defence Forces, pro-Israel American columnist Bari Weiss, who has loudly opposed gender-affirming medical care for trans people, a staff member at the U.S.-based pro-Israel Anti-Defamation League, and an Israeli actor.
No speakers critical of Israel or denouncing its war on Gaza, which has killed over 41,000 Palestinians, were on the program.
According to Nadine Shurafa with Occupy UofT for Palestine, members of several groups came together to oppose the “platforming [of] individuals notorious for their roles in supporting Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people, spreading anti-Palestinian hate, and stoking anti-trans sentiment.”
Several members of the anti-Zionist Jews Say No to Genocide (JSNTG) coalition, who do not feel represented by the UJA’s positions on Israel, gathered outside Meridian Hall before the event, with others. A group of around a dozen people, with heavy representation from JSNTG, went inside and sat down in the box office lobby, unfurling banners and posters, linking arms, and making speeches.
Private security and police told them they were trespassing, and then police dragged them out by their arms and legs along the driveway to the sidewalk.
A pro-Israel user of X.com (Twitter) posted video of the scene inside Meridian Hall.
[Text displayed over the videos here was added by social media users, not by The Grind.]
In the process of being dragged out by police, one person had their knee injured. After seeing a doctor, they learned their MCL ligament in their knee had been torn.
A member of JSNTG, Anna Lippman, posted video from outside.
More supporters met outside to protest the UJA fundraiser as guests arrived, and many police arrived as well, including six police on horses.
Exchanges of words between protesters and police got heated. During one exchange, police targeted someone in the crowd and after some pushing and shoving, a civilian fell and then an officer fell over her.
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Police pushed the line of demonstrators, and allowed the woman to start getting up, but in a separate video viewed by The Grind, as she was slowly trying to stand up she tugs on something and several officers decide to tackle and pin her to the ground, arresting her for allegedly assaulting an officer.
People can be heard screaming at the police to stop as police push them into posts, barriers and each other on the sidewalk.
Total chaos outside 51 Division police station downtown
Not long after the arrest of the woman, which was the only arrest that day at Meridian Hall, demonstrators marched to 51 Division Police Station at Parliament St. and King St. E., where the arrested woman was being held. This was done as “jail support” in an attempt to pressure the police to make sure she got to speak to a lawyer and that she would be released without delay and would have support when she got out.
Around 20 officers were lined up at the building’s entrance on Parliament St. when people arrived.
According to Gur Tsabar with JSNTG and other accounts, demonstrators and police faced each other for around 45 minutes without incident, separated by a low concrete bench and some police bicycles. Demonstrators chanted but there was little physical interaction between the sides.
Then in what Tsabar calls a “coordinated decision to plow into the crowd,” police yelled at people to leave, then immediately came over the low bench and started pushing and kicking people, trying to push them off the sidewalk and into active car traffic on Parliament St.
People fell over as they were being pushed, tripping others, including some police, who tried to continue moving as a line.
A few minutes into this messy interaction, some officers began pepper spraying people, mostly in the street at that point, according to Tsabar. In one video, an officer who is crouching or kneeling is seen pepper spraying people. The officer has been identified as Alexander Faierstein Morales.
Shurafa recalls that “TPS all of a sudden began to attack and push us off the sidewalk into the street where cars were actively driving by. The cops then proceeded to indiscriminately punch, shove, kick, and pepper-spray practically everyone in sight.”
Some police were seen to be struggling with the pepper spray getting in their own eyes as well.
“We [had] stuck to the barrier [in front of the station] but they still stormed us off the sidewalk onto the street and then off the street to a sidewalk, and then onto a street once more,” says Qastina, who was there in the crowd. We are not using Qastina’s full name as they fear being targeted by police.
People who were there tell The Grind that multiple drivers stopped and swerved abruptly to avoid hitting protestors that had been pushed onto the street and were not allowed back on the sidewalk.
“There was no consistent logic for anyone to follow because they kept changing what grounds we could be on,” Qastina says.
Very soon after they started pushing, six officers singled out a protester and charged at this individual, according to others who were there.
A video (below) shows one police officer with baton in hand slightly separated from the other police and a civilian behind him. A different officer then pushes the civilian, causing him to stumble into the officer with the baton, who then falls. Seeing the fallen officer but seemingly not understanding what happened, the line of police go on the offensive, chasing the person they pushed.
They soon tackle that person and pin them to the ground. For over 30 seconds while putting handcuffs on, a large officer is kneeling with their weight pressing down on that person’s upper back and neck region.
The practice of police kneeling on a person’s neck during an arrest is forbidden, though it has happened.
Footage from December 2023 shows a TPS officer kneeling on someone’s head and neck during a pro-Palestinian protest downtown. Despite the video, police deny it happened.
A demonstrator recalls that an officer chased a protester across the street, latching onto that person’s body and shirt and pulling them onto the street, where traffic was active. Three officers then pinned him onto the ground, with at least one officer kneeing him in the back, and handcuffed him while shoving his face to the ground.
Multiple women punched or elbowed in the face by police
Another video from Sept. 11 shows a woman being punched or elbowed in the face extremely forcefully by an officer, then the officer falling onto them. The woman later lost consciousness and was later diagnosed with a concussion.
Seconds later in the video, officers push someone else over on the other side of the street, causing them to fall hard onto the road on their stomach, and then police pin them down.
Another woman who said she was punched in the face by an officer may have a dislocated jaw and a concussion, though this is not medically confirmed.
Yet another woman who was present was pepper sprayed and hit in the head by police, organizers say.
Tsabar with JSNTG tells The Grind it felt like “felt like we were in the middle of a riot.” He earlier told CTV that “the police literally caused a riot.”
Arrests without charges
Faisal Samir, with the Coalition Against Pinkwashing, tells The Grind by phone that he was on the other side of the street from 51 Division when police started pushing people. “I was pepper sprayed when I went to see what was happening and try to support people.” He says he was also punched in the head, despite being nonviolent.
“From what I saw, [the police] instigated the whole situation and then they started pepper-spraying people and I moved to the other side of the street. Like that, the police then came through the public sidewalk where we were standing and started shoving us. At that point I was arrested. They didn’t charge me with anything. The reason given was ‘Breach of the Peace.’”
When he was being released from 51 Division, Samir says, “The officer said, ‘Unfortunately, our body cam footage could not show you doing any crime.’ Then he corrected himself and said ‘Actually, fortunately for you.’”
In another instance, “a young woman was pinned down onto the street by a cop with his knee on her back and forcibly grabbing her wrists, with two other cops joining in to put their weight on her too,” according to an eyewitness named Suki. We are not using Suki’s full name as they fear being targeted by police.
“This young woman was about 5-feet and 100-120 pounds at most. She was arrested and injured in the process.”
The woman seen being pinned and arrested the following video, and pushed over by police in other videos, confirms to The Grind she was not charged with any crime. She went to the hospital and was diagnosed with minor injuries.
Shurafa says they “charged at us repeatedly, even as many of our comrades were on the ground tending to others who were in pain and unable to see because of the pepper spray.”
“There was an element of vengeance and revenge on [the police’s] part for our protests over the past year.”
As Qastina saw it, “there was an element of vengeance and revenge on [the police’s] part for our protests over the past year. They are able to identify and remember people at this point. An officer actually said to one person, after ripping off their mask, ‘Now I know who you are.’”
One young woman being detained had her arm pinned underneath her and then told she needed to “produce her wrists” which she says was impossible because they were being pinned down by the cop on top of her. The officer said “you are going to be hurt if you don’t do this,” she says. We are not using her name as she fears police retaliation.
Similarities to the Lamport encampment clearing and jail support in 2021 and the Land Day crackdown
The scene was reminiscent of the police’s conduct clearing the Lamport Stadium encampment and then the jail support outside 14 Division on July 21, 2021. At Lamport, police ripped down tents of unhoused people, held someone with a chokehold, used a knee-on-neck hold, and liberally pepper sprayed the crowd and themselves.
Outside of 14 Division later that day, in response to a jail support gathering of people the police had faced off against multiple times, police appeared to instigate the violence, attacking in a heavy-handed and chaotic manner, punching people and hitting them with batons, and making several arrests.
All of the charges from that day in 2021 were either withdrawn or got absolute discharges, meaning a guilty plea in exchange for no sentence, no criminal record, and no conditions.
Tsabar, with JSNTG, says police were wilder last week than during their unexpected crackdown on the family-friendly Land Day march on Mar. 30.
After the Land Day crackdown in March, involving hundreds of officers enforcing a Traffic Act violation, six city councilors called for a review of police conduct, but that ultimately went nowhere.
Arrests and injuries
At least six people went to the hospital to get checked for their injuries inflicted on them by the police either the same night or in the following days, according to organizers.
“It was so chaotic protesters didn’t know how many people got arrested, or who, until [we] could gather ourselves at the next interaction at Parliament and King,” Suki says. Here, police formed a line across Parliament St. and the mounted unit arrived to line up behind them.
Street medics proceeded to treat those with burns from the spray and other injuries, similar to Lamport and 14 Division in July 2021, and Land Day in March of this year.
There were seven arrests made on Sept. 11, according to organizers. But only three charges were laid by police, according to their Sept. 12 press release. Two arrests were made in front of 51 Division and the other one was in front of Meridian Hall.
Four arrests were made at 51 Division without any charges being laid, and those individuals have been released unconditionally.
The police say that outside of 51 Division, “demonstrators proceeded to become combative” and a suspect assaulted an officer.
After the chaos subsided, more people showed up that night with water, food and other materials to help out. A group stayed until the last arrested protester was released at 2 am.
Toronto Police put out a second press release on Saturday, Sept. 14, announcing they are looking to charge three more people for allegedly assaulting officers, alleging two people spat at police officers and one struck an officer.
In response to questions about the police conduct seen in the videos and alleged by those present, a spokesperson for Toronto Police Services directed The Grind to their two press releases on Sept. 14 and on Sept 16 (after publication), police spokesperson Stephanie Sayer sent the following statement:
“On the evening of September 11, at around 6 p.m. at Meridian Hall, some protestors entered a private event, refused to leave when asked, and were physically removed by officers. After one individual was arrested for assaulting an officer, event organizers called for protestors to attend 51 Division, where tensions escalated. Several of our officers were shoved, spat on, and had objects thrown at them, resulting in minor injuries to two officers. As you know, three individuals were arrested for assaulting officers, and we are looking for others involved in these assaults.
“TPS respects the right to peaceful protest, but when criminal actions occur, arrests and charges follow. Since October 7, we have managed more than 1,400 demonstrations, with the vast majority resulting in no injuries or arrests.
“I’m not familiar with the specific allegations you’ve listed, but those wishing to file a formal complaint can do so through the Law Enforcement Complaints Agency.”
This article was updated at 1:17 pm on Monday, Sept. 16, to include additional police comment.
If you have more information, contact info[at]thegrindmag[dot]ca. Co-author N.W. is not using their legal name for fear of police retaliation.
This article appeared in the 2024 Oct/Nov issue.
